Closing Day at Ski Bowl

Today was the last day of skiing for the season at Ski Bowl.

Overall the mountain had a truly terrible year and if it hadn’t been for the 3 foot dump in early April (look back a few posts on this blog) they would have had to close at the beginning of the month. Emily and I got a late start leaving Corvallis at about 8:30am but were able to meet up with Aaron and Kelly

Rice who had attempted to summit Hood the day before but got whited out. Amy was there as well as Chris and Tiff who had driven up for the last day (free skiing if you

brought a couple cans of food as well). Emily and I stopped at the Mt. Hood Grocery in Rhododendron to pick up some beer for the afternoon as well. I pounded a couple 16 oz’ers on the first lift up to Upper Bowl to get the

fun day started. The weather was so beautiful that I was completely comfortable in my shorts, aviators, ball cap and traditional closing day Hawaiian shirt.

We all had a fun afternoon of skiing slush and billy-goating

down slopes of crazy exposed rocks and ledges. I had never seen Upper Bowl so barren of snow and the base of the mountain was pretty much dirt except for a path they had made to facilitate

the chairlift. Toshi’s drop was pretty much a band of bare rocks and the outback looked totally different than it does in mid-winter. This was an earlier closing date for Ski Bowl than normal for sure.

Aaron, Kelly, Amy, Em and I all cruised down to the Beer Stube around 3pm and had a couple beers. Amy

and Aaron had bought mugs for the mug club with their names on them but the bartender told me to wait to get mine until opening day next season. The girls found some cheesy fake tattoos that we all put on our arms for a few photos.

When Aaron and I tried to take one more run for the season on Upper Bowl we were shut down harshly by the lift operators who had just closed it

for the season. We didn’t know at the time but they had actually kept it open a little longer for others anyway but we were bummed. So, we did the next best thing and climbed halfway up Upper Bowl to straightline it switch

past the chairlift and down to the Stube again. We had a few more beers compliment of Ski Bowl which gave them away for free during a raffle before packing up our stuff and heading home. It was a great closing day and it was good to get one more day on the slopes with Aaron and Chris.